Up from the warm, almost oppressively humid Texas air rises a din. The sound is created by only three people. For now, we’ll just call them D.H., Nikki and Slim. The music that they are creating might be the aural equivalent of walking down a...

Up from the warm, almost oppressively humid Texas air rises a din. The sound is created by only three people. For now, we’ll just call them D.H., Nikki and Slim. The music that they are creating might be the aural equivalent of walking down a farm-to-market road on a foggy morning just before day breaks.

The clamor began in November 2007 when these three humans came together to form True Widow. As is to be expected, they set about committing this alchemy to tape and from this arose their self-titled debut in November 2008. True Widow was recorded by the more-than-capable hands of Matt Pence at his Echo Lab studio. But then came time to spread the good word. So they headed out West and then out East, bringing their simultaneously breathless and heavy live set with them.

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album review by Ultimate GuitarTrue Widow’s music is a bit more than a carbon-copy of their predecessors. From the opener "AKA" until the last strands of "KR," the record is mast by slow rising lifts and ambient plait's creating...

album review by Ultimate GuitarTrue Widow’s music is a bit more than a carbon-copy of their predecessors. From the opener "AKA" until the last strands of "KR," the record is mast by slow rising lifts and ambient plait's creating a mood that has a macabre-hue but still enthralling to the senses.

Noise Pop 09 Showcase Review by crawdaddyTrue Widow, who took the 9pm spot, exercise the less is more theory, and to great affect. This Dallas trio served the decidedly psych San Francisco crowd a mix of shoegaze and post rock with beautifully mellow vocals and menacing undertones, displaying a knack for delivering the rock goods while keeping the pace slow and steady with dynamics loud then soft—pretty downer music that manages to go interesting places even when it’s drenched in monotonous sludge. No gimmicks, just awesome music.

s/t album review by laurent the laurent by pastaprima.netIt always seems to take me a few listens to digest slocore and shoegaze music to figure out if I truly like it. On occasion I’m left blown away by it."..."This happened recently with the band True Widow out of Dallas, TX."..."On the album the slow tempo guitars roll in waves with Phillips’ pleasant vocals swimming in their murky waters. Where True Widow comes alive for me is when bassist Nikki Cage throws her voice into the depths.

s/t album review for KZSU by KZSU zookeeper onlinePop in the way that Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine make it: dissonant guitars, slow dreamy beats with male/female textures. Dream pop, yes. But a great tinge of twangy darkness a la the recent Earth releases.

Best Albums In Dallas Music, 2008: True Widow #9 by dallas observerIn a musical year that has been heavy on well-crafted dreamscapes (Fight Bite, School of Seven Bells, M83, etc.) in the pop realm, True Widow created an near-nightmarescape (but not quite that frightening) for those with heavier, shoegazier tastes."..."Hauntingly beautiful and brutal, but never unmelodic, the Matt Pence-produced True Widow is a debut of rare sonic depth and magnitude.

debut album review by wonka vision...with its dense blur of guitars which swirl and roar, grumble and moan, and a plodding pace that stumbles in a Quaalude haze through pea-soup atmospheres wrapped in such melancholy one’s tempted to throw Prozac at them."..." “Corpse Master,” meanwhile, appears to be dragging around the body of a mammoth, or at least the weighty remains of classic rock. Even Vanilla Fudge, the heaviest of the heyday rockers never reached this kind of tonnage.

s/t album review by Jesse Hughey by dallas observerHeavy, slow, dark. Repeat."..."The 10-track slab of growling guitars and plodding drums stretches on for an hour"..."the aural equivalent of Ny-Quil"..."you'll need a pick-me-up if you plan to operate heavy machinery.

best Shoegaze album of 08 by Opinion HatedTrue Widow’s self-titled album comes through with such a growl and slowgrinding shoegazing sound that it should be listed as a narcotic. It’s hypnotizing psychedelic groovy envelopes you to the point that you’re not quite sure if you’ve taken some type of illegal pill before you clicked play. As swaying as it is lo-fi artistic, the album is seriously an all around contender for one of the best albums released this year.

United by Geography and Friends by FaderDallas’ True Widow, who grabbed those lackadaisical grunge breakdowns we didn’t even realize we missed, and drew them out in an epic swell of apathy and stoned whateverness

s/t debut review by nexeus fataleFor a 3 piece band, True Widow does not sound like one. Their album is well put together with such a sound that’s easy to become surrounded by."..."What impresses the most on the bands self titled album, is their mixture of sound. Their vocals are not overpowering and in many cases leads to ghostly sound as its placed underneath chords and drums, as heard in AKA, Duelist and Flat Black. I can’t believe how much I enjoyed the guitar on this album, it ranges from broodingly moody (AKA) to frighteningly potent (All You Need) to dark-groove (Mesh Mask) without feeling misplaced, orphaned, or small. Matched with a consistent groove and rhythm section, I couldn’t help but to be drawn into the bands sound.

debut album review by the sound in your earFrom the opening riff of AKA, the LP’s lead-off track, True Widow’s snarling guitar grabs the listener, draws them in. Tones of Sonic Youth pelt the ear, a heavy, melodramatic symphony."..."I really dig True Widow’s sound. Throughout the album, I found myself weaving in my seat, closing my eyes imagining a dimly-lit set, the band barely ensconced by the halos of their music.

show review by: Zac Crain by D magazine - Front BurnerTrue Widow is one of those bands that needs to be experienced live to be truly appreciated. I mean, that’s probably true for most groups, but there’s something about the three-piece’s hazy, rumbling echo that is better served in a setting where the sound can bounce off the walls and build on itself. (I had my phone set on “vibrate” and it felt like it was ringing through the entire set.)

s/t album review by issueoriented.com..."like Low but with bigger amps. There’s even hints of Sebadoh speckled in here. It’s a rare delight to hear such a record - one that draws you in from start to finish - but this is just that. For a trio, they sound massive. I’m looking forward to catching these guys live.

s/t album review By Matthew Ralph by tangzine.com..."Long a fan of the genre, I’ve listened to plenty of bands like this that weren’t worth my time to know that True Widow offer something more than a mundane repackaging of the all-our-songs-sound-the-same motif."..."I’m reminded of the droning guitar-heavy indie-rock I listened to as a teenager to escape mindless overly optimistic pop music. This isn’t to say, even though bands like My Bloody Valentine, Starflyer 59, Ester Drang and Sonic Youth are at times brought to my mind, that the music is dated or irrelevant."...

s/t album review by Bob Morgan by scenepointblank.comTrue Widow accomplishes several milestones on their debut self-titled album which some bands take several albums or never achieve over the course of their lifetime: 1) Not one song sounds out of place on the record; 2) The band knows when to use volume and when to quiet things down and how to use such loud soft dynamics in their songwriting without being obvious about it; and 3) True Widow crafts a record so subtle in its arrangement and melodies that listeners do not immediately realize just how catchy it is."...'Sunday Driver' is a gem; a slow and steady track that is just catchy as hell with the disaffected vocals adding to the mood very much making the music such a downer while still staying pretty sounding, and equally impressive are the dynamic shifts in the song play out like waves crashing on a seashore as the rolling rhythm section continually propels the track along like a car driving on some dark highway late at night or early in the morning. 'All You Need' is a delicate, melodic tour de force with nice harmonized vocals, neatly plucked guitars, and the rolling rhythm section that makes True Widow; the vocals come across as if they are pleading for some stay of execution. For a debut, this self-titled album from True Widow is impressive.

write up by Pete Freedman by dallas observerDallas' own True Widow has, well, basically come out of nowhere in the past couple months to fill the surprisingly heavy void within the city's shoegaze/slowcore/dirge-rock scene--and fill it quite capably, thanks."..."This is a heavy, slow-moving, and, at times, crushingly brutal record.

s/t album review by adequacy.netTrue Widow’s brand of slowcore is sedated, minimalist, and dark. Sometimes they’re damn near morbid. Lumbering verses lead to choruses that flicker with life, reaching for hooks like a hand pushing out of the dirt."..."The album’s first and arguably brightest highlight is “Duelist”. Drums and bass rumble to the buzzing, chugging guitar. The song’s simplicity is appealing and grabs a mild hook. The female vocal provides a strong contrast to the album’s mood. “Corpse Master” features minimalist guitar work over the slow and grounded rhythm. The twilight sounds comfort like a warm, dank basement. A hook appears after four minutes and the song starts picking up. This track, coming halfway through the album, is a good showcase of the band’s sound.

True Widow Signs to Kemado Records by Kemado RecordsNEW YORK, Nov. 2 — True Widow, the Dallas-based co-ed trio known for creating hauntingly beautiful heavy music, have signed to New York-based Kemado Records with an eye on a March 2011 release.

Kemado Announces True Widow Signing by Dallas ObserverWe'd been suspecting this for a while now, but, according to a press release sent out by Kemado Records this morning, now it's official: The New York City-based label home to The Sword and Saviour, and formerly to acts like The Soft Pack, Dungen, Marissa Nadler and Langhorne Slim, has announced today its signing of self-described Dallas-based "stonegaze" trio True Widow.
Even better fans of this trio can expect the band's sophomore effort to come out in March 2011. Which is good news for sure--the band's 2008, self-titled debut blew us away when it was released, and remains among our favorite records. And, at recent live shows, the band's new material has sounded just as good, if not better.

2008 Best Albums: True Widow #1 by Crawdaddy-Howard Wymandistills the best of the past three decades into one patient, ageless, and accessible rock refresher. Possibly the best rock Texas has offered since Bedhead

s/t review by Aquarius RecordsLiterally, from the moment we first heard this record, we have not been able to stop listening to it. ... Just check out opener "Aka", with its strange mesmerizing main riff, the mysterious pause, and then when the band kicks in, it give you chills, and it's 40 seconds into the record.